Adobe (http://www.adobe.com) has published the results of its first quantitative mobile consumer study, conducted by its Omniture Business Unit including newly integrated Adobe Scene7.

The study of 1,200 U.S. consumers measured mobile user preferences, characteristics, satisfaction levels and other experiential factors across four key consumer categories: consumer products & shopping, financial services, media & entertainment, and travel. The study revealed that when it comes to the mobile user experience, respondents generally favor mobile browser experiences over downloadable mobile app experiences across all four categories, and prefer mobile apps when interacting with social media and music and self-contained experiences such as games and maps. Overall, consumers report equal satisfaction levels with their browser and app experiences and spend about the same amount of time interacting with each.

Within the consumer products & shopping as well as the media & entertainment categories, 66% of respondents cited that they prefer the mobile web for accessing content compared to 34% who cited a preference for downloadable apps. The survey also demonstrated a huge opportunity for mobile commerce, with as much as 38% of respondents saying they had not purchased anything in the consumer products & shopping category from their devices in the last six months.

“Though mobile apps continue to be extremely popular, mobile users aren’t ignoring mobile web sites,” says Brad Rencher, vice president and general manager, Omniture Business Unit, Adobe. “This and other findings make it clear that companies can significantly enhance their customers’ mobile experiences and better drive mobile e-commerce revenue.

He says the study also found media & entertainment to be the highest-penetrated mobile category, both by number of users and time spent, with only 3% of those surveyed saying they had not interacted with media content on a mobile device in the last six months.

In contrast, consumer products & shopping was the least penetrated, with the fewest number of users citing that they have purchased consumer goods from their phones. Despite their differences, media & entertainment and consumer products & shopping drew the highest percentage of satisfied mobile users out of the four categories, with 89% and 85% respectively. Other key findings include:

° Accessing maps and directions is the No. 1 mobile activity (81%) followed by three media-related activities: social networking (76%) accessing local information (73%) and reading news (68%). The top mobile finance activity is reviewing bank account information (67%).
Shrink-wrapped entertainment such as CDs, games and DVDs comprise the second largest mobile purchase category, accounting for 43% of those surveyed.

Males 30-49 years-old tend to be the most active content consumers and mobile purchasers; men outspend women, with 31% having spent $499 or more through their mobile device in the last 12 months, versus 23% of women who did so.

Men also spend more time than women on financial and travel content, while more women (80%) engage with social media on their devices compared to men (70 %).